Adam was born July 31, 1979, in Carrolltown Pennsylvania. Growing up Adam enjoyed baseball and wrestling. He has many trophies showing his talents in both sports. He was a kind gentle young man the teachers told of his kind nature towards the other children.

Adam enjoyed four-wheeling, fishing, camping, bowling, and shooting pool. He had a love for music and his younger sister. He taught her to shoot pool and they would enter tournaments together and as a team they were hard to beat. He kept her safe as older brothers do and they spent many hours listening to music and talking.

Adam had just entered college and was planning a career in business management. He had made some new friends and we did not know these friends were involved with drugs. The weekend before his death was a wonderful family time. We gathered in our back yard to have the season’s first picnic. The kids had fun throwing Frisbee and playing catch. We were enjoying each other’s company and making plans for our summer. Adam told us he would be buying his fishing license in the next week and had plans with his childhood friends to do some camping. Everything changed the following Tuesday.

It was May 19, 1998, and I knocked on Adam’s bedroom door to make sure he was awake before we left. He had a class that morning at 11 A.M. There was no response but sometimes it took several times knocking before he was awake enough to answer. This particular morning I was getting no response at all. The door was locked which was very unusual. I picked the lock and opened the door. I knew something was wrong because Adam was not in his bed but lying beside it on the floor. When I walked around the bed and saw his face I knew instantly that he was dead. This was my worst nightmare. We learned later that day Adam had died of an overdose of heroin.

We talked to our children about drugs and alcohol. We thought we were educated and we felt sure when our children were faced with that decision they would make the right choice. We were wrong! Adam was so young and had a bright future ahead of him. That was all gone in an instant.

We live in a small rural community and at the time of Adam's death illicit drugs was not a common topic. When Adam died it made everyone realize we could have a drug problem even in a small community. The death of Adam brought forth Remembering ADAM Inc.

Remembering ADAM will work hard to create environmental change that will promote healthy decisions and behaviors regarding substance abuse.